Description

Part 1: Imagining Tomorrow: Healing and Hope in the Human Age

Poet, essayist, naturalist, teacher, polymath, and all-around creative genius, Diane Ackerman has for decades been writing extraordinarily rich, scientifically informed, and compulsively readable books of astonishing variety. An adventurer as well as a masterful prose stylist, in her far-ranging work, she’s dedicated herself to capturing the variety and sheer wonder of life on this planet. Her latest book, The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us, explores the ramifications of the current Anthropocene age-the first time in history humans have become the dominant force of change on the planet.

Since publishing his landmark book, The Developing Mind, psychiatrist Daniel Siegel has been celebrated for translating the esoterica of neuroscience into clinical language that powerfully demonstrates how psychotherapy changes the brain. Siegel has also contributed major insights to our understanding of the role mindfulness plays in building our capacity to comprehend ourselves and others. In books like Mindsight; The Mindful Therapist; and Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain, he’s succeeded at getting both therapists and a lay audience enthralled with the complexity and majesty of the human brain.

In this conversation, Ackerman and Siegel-the naturalist and the brain scientist-will explore how human consciousness can evolve to meet the unprecedented challenges we face on a planet we are altering in ways never before contemplated.

Part 2: The Psychotherapy of Tomorrow

In a speeded-up, increasingly impersonal world in which the face-to-face traditions of the therapeutic relationship seem old-fashioned and even countercultural, this Forum will consider what clinical advances lay ahead and what new forms the healing craft of psychotherapy may take in the years to come. Each presenter offers a 20-minute TED Talk-style presentation, which is followed by the opportunity for further exchange and exploration with the audience.

William Doherty – Moderator

John Gottman & Julie Schwartz Gottman – The Future of Couples Therapy

How to extend our reach and effectiveness by making technology our friend

Bessel van der Kolk – The Trauma Treatment of Tomorrow

The marriage of ancient wisdom and modern science promises to increase the effectiveness of our methods

Daniel Siegel – The Next Steps for Brain Science and Psychotherapy

What the latest advances in neuroscience can tell us about the future of psychotherapy